Jerry Coyne Quotes
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It takes a profound hypocrisy to try to reconcile for others things that you can’t reconcile for yourself.
"The disingenuous Professor Ruse" July 29, 2012 
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More Jerry Coyne Quotes
Some believers are fundamentalists about everything, but every believer is a fundamentalist about something.
Jerry Coyne— An aphorism for atheism September 3, 2013
In religion , faith is a virtue. In science , faith is a vice.
Jerry Coyne— Coyne (2011) "For the love of God... scientists in uproar at £1m religion prize" on independent.co,uk, April 7, 2011
Theology is the post hoc rationalization of what you want to believe.
Jerry Coyne— "Quote of the week: William James on theology" June 4, 2012
The fact that both Jews and Christians ignore some of God’s or Jesus’s commands, but scrupulously obey others, is absolute proof that people pick and choose their morality not on the basis of its divine source, but because it comports with some innate morality that they derived from other sources.
Jerry Coyne— "Biblical morality part 2: Killing non-virgin brides and rebellious kids" June 26, 2012
Come on, readers, give me one example of a question that religion has answered to everyone’s satisfaction one example of a “truth” found in religion’s quest for truth.
Jerry Coyne— "Do both science and faith produce truth?" August 11, 2012
But this (a listing of illustrations of how the genome can change other than by mutations) doesn’t constitute a crisis it’s a very interesting finding that shows that variation in a genome can arise by processes other than mutation of an organism’s own DNA. The disposition of that variation still must occur via either natural selection (it can be good or bad) or genetic drift (no effect on fitness). This hasn’t really changed the theory of evolution one iota, though it’s changed our view of where organisms can acquire new genes.
Jerry Coyne— "Another philosopher proclaims a nonexistent “crisis” in evolutionary biology" September 7, 2012
Damn, but science is just a constant feed of cool new facts and theories. Theology doesn’t come close.
Jerry Coyne— "A huge water geyser on Saturn’s moon helps make the rings, and a bonus eclipse from Mars" September 17, 2012
Why, exactly, are scientists supposed to accord “respect” to a bunch of ancient fables that are not only ludicrous on their face, but motivate so much opposition to science?
Jerry Coyne— "Nicholas Wade’s ridiculous prescription for curing creationism" November 28, 2012
Faith is a padlock of the mind, and few keys can open it.
Jerry Coyne— "Don McLeroy leaves creationist comment: evolution can’t explain “biochemical complexity”" January 30, 2013
In the end theologians are jealous of science, for they are aware that it has greater authority than do their own ways of finding “truth”: dogma, authority, and revelation. Science does find truth, faith does not.
Jerry Coyne— "William Lane Craig defends his ridiculous claim that animals don’t suffer" February 9, 2013
Can a geology teacher blithely tell his students that the earth is flat, or a European history professor that the Holocaust didn’t happen? That’s not academic freedom, but dereliction of duty.
Jerry Coyne— "More creationism sneaks into public schools" April 29, 2013
He is a dissimulator, a back-pedaler, a coward, and a self-serving ignoramus. In other words, he’s a politician.
Jerry Coyne— "Another billboard kerfuffle" December 22, 2013
The battle for evolution seems never-ending. And the battle is part of a wider war, a war between rationality and superstition.
Jerry Coyne— p. xiii (Why Evolution is True (2009))
This book lays out the main lines of evidence for evolution. For those who oppose Darwinism purely as a matter of faith, no amount of evidence will do theirs is a belief not based on reason.
Jerry Coyne— p. xiv (Why Evolution is True (2009))
It’s clear that this resistance stems largely from religion. You can find religions without creationism, but you never find creationism without religion.
Jerry Coyne— p. xvii (Why Evolution is True (2009))
We humans have many vestigial features proving that we evolved. The most famous is the appendix.
Jerry Coyne— p. 60 (Why Evolution is True (2009))
Tiny, nonfunctional wings, a dangerous appendix, eyes that can’t see, and silly ear muscles simply don’t make sense if you think that species were specially created.
Jerry Coyne— p. 64 (Why Evolution is True (2009))
The biogeographic evidence for evolution is now so powerful that I have never seen a creationist book, article, or lecture that has tried to refute it. Creationists simply pretend that the evidence doesn’t exist.
Jerry Coyne— p. 88 (Why Evolution is True (2009))
We now have many of the answers that once eluded Darwin, thanks to two developments that he could not have imagined: continental drift and molecular taxonomy.
Jerry Coyne— p. 90 (Why Evolution is True (2009))
If you can’t think of an observation that could disprove a theory, that theory simply isn’t scientific.
Jerry Coyne— p. 138 (Why Evolution is True (2009))
If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.
Jerry Coyne— p. 140 (Why Evolution is True (2009))
Because of the hegemony of fundamentalist religion in the United States, this country has been among the most resistant to the fact of human evolution.
Jerry Coyne— p. 192 (Why Evolution is True (2009))
Evolution tells us where we came from, not where we can go.
Jerry Coyne— p. 231 (Why Evolution is True (2009))
A well-understood and testable hypothesis like sexual selection surely trumps an untestable appeal to the inscrutable caprices of a creator.
Jerry Coyne— Why Evolution is True (2009, p. 240)
Science has only two things to contribute to religion: an analysis of the evolutionary, cultural, and psychological basis for believing things that aren’t true, and a scientific disproof of some of faith’s claims (e.g., Adam and Eve, the Great Flood). Religion has nothing to contribute to science, and science is best off staying as far away from faith as possible. The “constructive dialogue” between science and faith is, in reality, a destructive monlogue, with science making all the good points, tearing down religion in the process.
Jerry Coyne— "Tania Lombrozo strokes the faithful at NPR" September 23, 2013
